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St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 4 | August 2012 tions. For instance, it is hard to conceive of Christian mission which is not Trinitarian in its essence (cf., e.g., Taylor 2000: 179-256). Instead, too often, systematic questions concerning C5 praxis are mounting. Thus Span and Span (2009: 59) rightly attend to the doctrinal assumptions within language surrounding the notions of ‘sin’ and ‘sins’ within the conference of Common Ground Consultants. They also engage in wider systematic assessment of the conference and seek to position it in relation to other developments such as the emergent church and seeker-sensitive movements (Span and Span 2009: 55, 60). Like Smith (2009), they raise many important and telling questions concerning C5. Elsewhere, Nikides (2009:111-112) is alert to the Gnostic overtones to ecclesiology and other religions and to perceived related oppositional separation of the church and the Holy Spirit. Tennent (2010: 501) also comments how “the two doctrines [of soteriology and ecclesiology] often seem to stand in conflict with one another” within C5 (cf. Hoefer 2007c). Systematic analyses are also inevitable in comparing Christian and Muslim Christologies (e.g. Bridger 2009; Kaltner 2009) and will, in turn, inform analyses of Christian Christotelic and ecclesiotelic trajectories for space and time which will – eventually – diverge from that of the Qur’an (cf., e.g., Stringer 2009, who sees history as an integral aspect of the Muslim mind). Furthermore, terms like ‘incarnational’, when applied to Christian ministries, require increasingly careful deliberation and delineation (cf., e.g., Corniche 2010b; Madany 2010). A seventh observation focuses on a particular need arising out of what has gone before. There is a startling need for more work regarding God’s nature, and the consequent nature of idolatry (Span 2009b: 120; Flint 2010b: 900-907; cf. Corwin et al. 2007: 16-17) and syncretism. This will become particularly important if texts such as 1 Corinthians 8-10 and Acts 15: 19-20 introduce idolatry as an analytical category for assessing insider culture and religion. So far, C5 debates have made only limited use of idolatry as an analytic category. Opponents of C5 have been charged, somewhat emotively, with “following the idol of ecclesiastical tradition” (Lewis in Corwin et al. 2007: 14), whereas the suggestion of idolatry within St Francis Magazine is a publication of Interserve and Arab Vision 490
St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 4 | August 2012 C5 has been immediately rebuffed (Travis and Travis 2005: 413; Higgins in Corwin et al. 2007: 17). Elsewhere, without explaining his reasoning, Higgins (2007: 28) equates idolatry with syncretism, and differentiates insider movements from the situation in Acts 15, precisely because the latter instance calls for repentance from idolatry (2007: 37). Existing work examining idolatry from perspectives beyond missiology (e.g. Halbertal and Margalit 1992; Barton 2007) would inform a more helpful engagement with idolatry categories for both proponents and critics of insider movements. Higgins remains too vulnerable to charges of anthropological reductionism, even Gnosticism (Nikides 2009: 94-96, cf. Higgins 2009a: 81-83), and his assertion of the extension of the kingdom of God beyond the church is weak (Higgins 2009a: 85-88; cf. Nikides 2009: 102-111). Like idolatry, syncretism offers a multi-level analytical category (cf. Leopald and Jensen 2004) which is under-employed or used as an emotive term within the insider movement debate. Used well, these terms will better inform issues such as whether Christians should use the Qur’an for clarification of an existing argument or for finding within it the gospel (Smith 2009: 29). Such employment of idolatry and syncretism will also open up new exegetical issues: would Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14 have instituted an insider movement within the Zeus cult in Lystra, and how does the answer to such a question inform our assessments of insider movements in our contemporary settings Whereas idolatry and syncretism might initially appear to be unexpected categories to introduce into an increasingly polarised and emotionally-charged debate such as that surrounding C5 and insider movements, they do offer surprising potential for moving beyond dichotomous and polarising options. In particular, they enable engagement with the dual notion of subversive fulfilment (cf. Schlorff 2006: 17-19, 108-136), whereby Islam is both subverted and fulfilled – in its deepest longings – by the gospel. Under this schema, both similarities and differences can be held in the productive tension sought by Waterman (2007: 58), as can the uneasy distinction between the believer’s ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ allegiances presented St Francis Magazine is a publication of Interserve and Arab Vision 491
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